Not to be a wet blanket, but my interest in photos of bottomless portafilter pours is limited to diagnosing extraction problems (ideally videos). For those who cannot get enough, you can indulge in the hundreds of photos from Look Out JonR! on CoffeeGeek or espressoporn.

Dan,
I appreciate your comments regarding the grind adjustment... and your interest in diagnosis rather than pure aesthetics. I've been tweaking and adjusting tamping for a while to try to get some decent consistency. I do seem to have a repeat problem with early blonding on the right side of the puck. I have worked hard to get the distribution right and I think my problems narrow down to tamping. I'm right handed and I hold the PF in my left hand, and the tamper in the right. The puck is always level after tamping and doesn't usually show any channeling afterwards. I think I just unconsciously lean harder on the right when tamping. Any suggestion regarding correcting this? Maybe stand on my right leg when tamping so I lean to the left?

Brooklynshot wrote:The puck is always level after tamping and doesn't usually show any channeling afterwards. I think I just unconsciously lean harder on the right when tamping. Any suggestion regarding correcting this?

If the distribution is correct, the tamp has little impact on the extraction as long as it's reasonably consistent and level. It's a guess, but I think the difference you see is more likely attributable to the initial wetting being uneven. If you feel this is impacting the quality of the espresso, try grinding finer and downdosing by one or two grams. This will increase the headspace and improve the evenness of the initial wetting.

Reducing the brew pressure can also reduce the impact of uneven wetting. While I generally recommend 9 bar, I've been experimenting lately with lower brew pressures after a long stint with the spring-powered Ponte Vecchio Lusso. Dropping the pump pressure to 7.5 bar worked quite well for some blends, most notably Intelligentsia's Black Cat. There's less crema, but the flavor profile is more complex and tasty fruit notes emerge.

PS: Tamping consistently isn't difficult, but here's a couple hints. Keep your wrist straight as Matt shows below from the HB Tamper Roadshow:

ThaRiddla wrote:The Radical Pro was designed to eliminate the ability to hold the tamper incorrectly, meaning you have to hold it like a bat or a golf club instead of a rubber stamp (sorry, that's the only thing i can think of that is held similarly). Forcing to hold like a golf club greatly increases the baristas' chances of forming a straight line with the tamper > hand > wrist > forearm > elbow. This cuts down on stress and getting carpal tunnel.

Like this:



The only problem is that if your counters are too high or you are too short, you are forced into an uncomfortable position. You also might have to adjust how you position yourself and the pf in relation to the counter to get a level tamp.

He refers to Reg's "radial pro", but the same idea applies to all tampers: Keep your elbow at a right angle, grasp the tamper handle as you would a door knob, use your shoulder to apply pressure. I like to rest the fingers of my free hand along the basket edge to guide the tamper's piston (assuming you can lay the portafilter down on a level surface, or tamp the basket outside of the portafilter). Run your fingers along the basket / piston gap. If there is even the slightest cant, you'll feel it even if you can't see it.

Dan,

I tried this at lunch today... The problem was mostly with dosing and space for wetting as you suggested. I first corrected my tamp using the "golf club grip" first and got the same results... so I tried slightly under dosing by about 2 grams and bang... there it was... all even and no lop-sided blonding. I dosed so that the puck was about 1mm under the basket ridge after tamping. Thanks for the expert help!